NEIGHBOURS are celebrating after a drugs den which has been a source of torment for years has been closed down.

Police officers and council officials evicted the tenant, a 29-year-old man, and sealed the entrance to 34 Brymore Road in Canterbury.

The move signals the end of more than two years of misery for neighbours who have endured:

*People turning up at all hours, shouting and demanding drugs.

* A ladder being placed up to the window to try to get into the first-floor property.

* A foul odour wafting from the dingy flat.

Neighbours are delighted at the police and council’s success. One 85-year-old woman said: “We have suffered two-and-a-half years of hell. We’ve had it at all times of the night, shouting, a ladder being put up by the window and the police coming round. The police and council have done an excellent job here.”

Tin foil used by heroin addicts to smoke the drug and needles for injecting it have also been found by neighbours. A 48-year-old woman who lives near the flat added: “We are very pleased that they have got rid of him. We can have some peace now.”

Housing officers have spoken to the tenant about where he might live now, but have told him the council no longer has a duty to house him.

The investigation into the flat was spearheaded by Canterbury’s Public Safety Unit, a joint police and city council body.

It applied to city magistrates on Friday for the eviction under new powers granted in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003.

The unit was able to prove that huge amounts of disruptive behaviour had taken place in the flat where police also found evidence of heroin and crack use.

Police raided the property and used a device to detect that drug-taking had taken place there. But they said there was not enough evidence to lay criminal charges against the tenant.

After removing him from the council property, the door was bolted shut and a notice was placed on it announcing that the flat was closed. It will remain closed and then be cleaned for a new tenant.

Velia Coffey, the council’s housing and community development chief, said: “This is not a course of action we take lightly.

“We have a duty to protect the law-abiding majority of our residents, who should not have to put up with severe forms of anti-social behaviour such as this.”